Report: Chinese hackers waging cyberwar on U.S.

Chinese hackers are waging war against the United States through the cyber realm, a senior defense official said last week.

“They will exploit anything and everything,” an official with the Naval Network Warfare Command told Federal Computer Week (FCW) on condition of anonymity.

For several years now, hackers from China have received attention from military officials because of their well-orchestrated attacks. In 2003, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) confirmed that it was parrying coordinated attacks from China’s Guangdong province. At the time DoD codenamed the systematic Chinese cyberassault “Titan Rain,” but has since changed the codename and classified that information.

More recently, Major General William Lord told Government Computer News in August 2006 that China has downloaded 10 to 20 terabytes of data from DoD’s main network, NIPRNet. And in November 2006, the Naval War College was hacked in a strike that took down systems for weeks.

Though they can’t confirm the Chinese government’s involvement, U.S. security experts believe the foreign state has a hand in the attacks.

“It’s hard to believe it’s not government-driven,” the official told FCW.

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